I made an incubator out of a wine cooler as well. I ran about 18" of the 11" flexwatt up the back. Maybe you can run the 3" flexwatt up both sides of the channel. I don't know if 1 section of 3" would stay warm enough. You could always set it up and see. I would rather have extra and let the Herpstat control it. I wouldn't want to risk it not getting warm enough.